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Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness

Author

Listed:
  • Muldrew,Craig

Abstract

Until the widespread harnessing of machine energy, food was the energy which fuelled the economy. In this groundbreaking 2011 study of agricultural labourers' diet and material standard of living, Craig Muldrew uses empirical research to present a much fuller account of the interrelationship between consumption, living standards and work in the early modern English economy than has previously existed. The book integrates labourers into a study of the wider economy and engages with the history of food as an energy source and its importance to working life, the social complexity of family earnings, and the concept of the 'industrious revolution'. It argues that 'industriousness' was as much the result of ideology and labour markets as labourers' household consumption. Linking this with ideas about the social order of early modern England, the author demonstrates that bread, beer and meat were the petrol of this world, and a springboard for economic change.

Suggested Citation

  • Muldrew,Craig, 2011. "Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521881852, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:cbooks:9780521881852
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Vicente Pinilla, 2024. "Agricliometrics and Agricultural Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 1837-1869, Springer.
    2. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2022. "Beyond the male breadwinner: Life‐cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260–1850," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 530-560, May.
    3. Falk, Marcus & Bengtsson, Erik & Olsson, Mats, 2023. "Wealth, work, and industriousness, 1670–1860: Evidence from rural Swedish probates," Lund Papers in Economic History 251, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    4. Theodoridis, Dimitrios, 2017. "The ecological footprint of early-modern commodities Coefficients of land use per unit of product," Göteborg Papers in Economic History 21, University of Gothenburg, Unit for Economic History.
    5. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2012. "Agricultural output, calories and living standards in England before and during the Industrial Revolution," Working Papers 201212, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    6. Gregory Clark, 2018. "Growth or stagnation? Farming in England, 1200–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 55-81, February.
    7. Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2019. "Family standards of living over the long run, England 1280-1850," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 419, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Bernard Harris & Roderick Floud & Sok Chul Hong, 2014. "Food for Thought: Comparing Estimates of Food Availability in England and Wales, 1700-1914," NBER Working Papers 20177, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Penelope Francks, 2022. "Industriousness and divergence: Living standards, housework and the Japanese diet in comparative historical perspective," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 26-46, March.
    10. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries & Ken Sneath, 2015. "Consumption conundrums unravelled," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(3), pages 830-857, August.
    11. Gazeley, Ian & Verdon, Nicola, 2014. "The first poverty line? Davies' and Eden's investigation of rural poverty in the late 18th-century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 94-108.
    12. Jakob Molinder & Christopher Pihl, 2023. "Women's work and wages in the sixteenth century and Sweden's position in the ‘little divergence’," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(1), pages 145-168, February.
    13. Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2020. "Life-cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260-1850," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106986, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Sara Horrell, 2023. "Household consumption patterns and the consumer price index, England, 1260–1869," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(4), pages 1023-1050, November.
    15. Morgan Kelly & Joel Mokyr & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2014. "Precocious Albion: A New Interpretation of the British Industrial Revolution," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 363-389, August.
    16. Ian Gazeley & Sara Horrell, 2013. "Nutrition in the English agricultural labourer's household over the course of the long nineteenth century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 757-784, August.
    17. Thijs Lambrecht, 2013. "The welfare paradox: poor relief and economic development in England in a European perspective, c.1600-c.1800," Working Papers 13001, Economic History Society.
    18. Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane & Sneath, Ken, 2015. "Consumption conundrums unravelled," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101311, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2019. "Working for a Living? Women and Children’s Labour Inputs in England, 1260-1850," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _172, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Jane Humphries, 2013. "The lure of aggregates and the pitfalls of the patriarchal perspective: a critique of the high wage economy interpretation of the British industrial revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 693-714, August.
    21. Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2020. "Life-cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260-1850," Economic History Working Papers 106986, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    22. Erik Bengtsson & Mats Olsson & Patrick Svensson, 2022. "Mercantilist inequality: wealth and poverty in Stockholm, 1650–1750†," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(1), pages 157-180, February.
    23. Sebastian A.J. Keibek, 2016. "By-Employments In Early Modern England And Their Significance For Estimating Historical Male Occupational Structures," Working Papers 29, Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Cambridge, revised 21 Mar 2017.
    24. José L. Martínez González, 2019. "High Wages or Wages For Energy? An Alternative View of The British Case (1645-1700)," Working Papers 0158, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    25. Phil Withington, 2020. "Intoxicants and the invention of ‘consumption’," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(2), pages 384-408, May.

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